Comrade Crow says all change at Doncaster…

The strikes on the Tube and some rail networks over the holiday period are a depressing sign of things to come.

The website of the RMT, the rail workers’ union, is littered with reports of industrial action from Penzance to Scotland.

Just a few weeks ago, Comrade Bob Crow, the militant leader of the RMT, opened a new National Education Centre for the union in Doncaster. It was attended by all the great and good in the union, together with the guest of honour Ms Frances O’Grady — the new general secretary of the TUC.

'Comrade ': RMT Leader Bob Crow Bob Crow has opened a new National Education Centre for the union

‘The RMT is not only opening expanded education facilities today, but is also sending a warning to both the boss class and the political class that this trades union is building for the future with plans to train up and tool up hundreds of new militant activists who will drive the RMT’s brand of industrial trades unionism deep into workplaces the length and breadth of the land.

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‘The RMT is taking the tried and tested union slogan “Agitate, Educate, Organise” and placing it in the most modern and well-equipped facilities at our Doncaster centre as we look to the future and learn from the past.’

Worryingly, the rant was warmly applauded by Ms O’Grady who, until now, was seen as a moderating influence among an increasingly militant trades union movement.

The militant activists who will be benefiting from the RMT’s new education centre will be served the very best cuisine in its new dining room. The union recently advertised for a cordon bleu chef to provide ‘an excellent service to tutors, students & visitors to the centre’. Bon appetit, comrades!

Scargill’s pit bulls

Another faded firebrand, Arthur Scargill, returned to the fore last month when he lost his court battle to force the National Union of Mineworkers to keep paying the rent on his London flat.

Arthur Scargill lost his court battle to force the National Union of Mineworkers to pay his rent

He’ll be back in the news again next year when his former wife, Anne, publishes her autobiography.

They split up 14 years ago after 37 years of marriage. Close friends reported that the only thing the couple had in common in the end was their pet dogs.

In her New
Year message, Lib Dem MP Lynne Featherstone tries to discredit one of
the arguments against gay marriage: ‘It is even more shameful when that
argument is lost to simply shift to the next argument as being the most
important — that there is no mandate.’ For the record, gay marriage was
not even in the Lib Dem equality manifesto. So who is being shameful

Keith Vaz was the subject of a police investigation over 500,000 deposited into his accounts

Vaz caught in the moonlight

The holier-than-thou Labour MP Keith Vaz yesterday pledged that the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, which he chairs, would look into the number of police officers moonlighting.

This is the same Keith Vaz who, it was disclosed in October, had been the subject of a police inquiry that found almost 500,000 was deposited in his bank accounts (or those linked to him) — in addition to his 65,000 MP’s salary — between 1997 and 2001.

Vaz denied any wrongdoing and claimed any money passing through his accounts came from property deals he had not declared. Just the man, then, to look into the police and their outside interests.

After delivering one of the worst Budgets in recent memory, Chancellor George Osborne was advised by Tory MPs to concentrate on the day job. He’s clearly not listening. Shortly before Christmas he wrote an article not about the economy but why abandoning gay marriage could cost the Tories the election.

When he became Lib Dem leader, Nick Clegg said in his acceptance speech: ‘I am liberal by temperament, by instinct and by upbringing.’ This is the same Nick Clegg who, according to Lib Dem Voice, has refused to meet his own supporters campaigning against the introduction of secret courts even though his party is opposed to them. How very liberal.

Clegg has apparently refused to meet his own supporters campaigning against the introduction of secret courts

From The Guardian: ‘Great gift ideas inspired by culture and creativity.’ It then goes on to boast: ‘The Guardian Collection presents a range of beautifully crafted stationary, inspired by the Guardian and exclusively designed by celebrated artist Norma Bar.’ A pity the newspaper can’t spell ‘stationery’ properly in its own promotional ad.

The House of Commons All-Party Parliamentary Group on Beer exists, among other things, ‘to promote the enjoyment of beer, and to promote a positive future for beer and the pub’. Do you think the newly declared 55,505 donation to the group from the beer-brewing industry helps them to achieve their objectives